this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
192 points (97.5% liked)

Privacy

31876 readers
567 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

This is the problem with using VPN services in general, you have to have complete trust in the service provider.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

What you're describing is the network effect in action, not a flaw in Craigslist.

(It will be the same with every alternative you find, except perhaps one that's well funded with outside money, which will be awful on the privacy front, of course.)

The way we overcome a network effect is piece by piece:

  • First we switch to the privacy-friendly service for everything we can. That immediately reduces our exposure, reduces the power of the incumbent, and makes the alternative more useful by giving more users a reason to switch.
  • Then, over time, we switch for the remaining things as we find a suitable service for each one. (This might even be the same privacy-friendly alternative we started with, after it has grown a little.)

If I felt I had to buy a sports car, and some awful invasive site like Facebook was somehow the only viable venue, I would buy just the car there. I wouldn't make them the middle man for every other transaction in my life.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

well yea its not Craigslist itself that's the issue, its the fact that its a smaller platform. and yea I use eBay or Craigslist for everything but vehicles.its sad that Craigslist has been forgotten though.